Instructional Resources Services Compliance with HEOA

The Higher Education Opportunity Act (HEOA) was reauthorized in 2008. An important part of the act now requires that all institutions of higher learning list textbooks used by individual courses and provide sufficient information to allow the student to acquire the textbooks from any source of his or her choice. The act mandates that textbook costs be available as part of any schedule of classes, whether online or in print. The intent of this act is to allow students to shop for the best price on textbooks and thus lower their costs.

While textbook rental operations are not specifically mentioned in the act, they are still bound by the act and must list all textbooks used at UW-Stout. Starting this semester each course will have an online link to the textbooks used in that course, whether the textbook is part of our Instructional Resources Service (IRS) rental system or is required to be purchased. The IRS has been charged with maintaining the database for all textbooks used at UW-Stout, whether rented or purchased.

In order to have the listing available and be in compliance with federal law, the IRS now must require earlier notification of textbook needs. Textbooks used in a course must be determined and requests made to the IRS at the time that courses are set for a particular semester. As a general rule textbook requests need to be finalized and submitted prior to the first online listing of courses for a coming term. Textbook requests, changes and decisions need to be submitted for WinTerm and for Spring Semester 2012 by October 3, 2011.

We realize that this will place a burden on faculty to make decisions regarding textbook selection and usage in a timely manner. Please understand that this does not affect the method or process by which faculty select and order textbooks; the only change you will see is the need for an earlier submission date for textbook requests.

The staff of the IRS and the Campus Bookstore will work with you to insure that you get the materials you need to teach your students.